Developing Elementary Students’ Career Awareness of Advanced Manufacturing

Broadening underserved students' participation in advanced manufacturing (AM) workforce at scale is critical. This exploratory study showcased outreach activities in a suburban elementary school serving primarily students from underserved communities. Given the age group of those elementary students, the goal of this series of outreach activities was to inspire their career awareness of engineering. Approximately sixty students all around the age of seven participated in this event. All of them had some STEM experience through their participation in math and science classes. Local students do not yet have solid career plans until the ninth grade, but most of the students involved in this outreach activity had an interest in engineering. There were six activities in the rotation: gum drop towers, popsicle stick structures, paper gliders, catapults, Legos, and homemade slime; each of these activities were associated with different tasks to accomplish. To ensure students' exposure to various aspects of AM projects and jobs, all the students had the opportunity to rotate through all the activities. Overall, elementary students involved in this outreach activities stayed engaged in those activities. The findings showed that students established awareness of the advanced manufacturing field and fostered excitement about pursuing such a career in the future. The experience assured the importance of hosting outreach events for students to hear it straight from people in the field who used to be in their same position.